Conventionally, there has been known an elongate composite member, such as a vehicle ornamental member, in which a resin part is continuously secured in the longitudinal direction to an elongate shaped body having a cross-sectional shape that varies in the longitudinal direction thereof. When used as a drip molding, the elongate composite member is comprised of a front portion extending along the front pillar panel of a vehicle body, a center portion along the roof panel and a rear portion along the rear pillar panel, which are connected into a unitary body with one another. Furthermore, it is a general practice that the center portion has a substantially constant cross-sectional shape while the front and rear portion have cross-sectional shapes which vary in the longitudinal direction thereof. That is, the center portion of the elongate composite member has a width which is constant in the longitudinal direction, though the front and rear portions have widths which gradually increase toward the front or rear end thereof from the width of the center portion. In this arrangement, it is preferable from the viewpoint of manufacturing technology, that the resin part has a cross-sectional shape which is substantially constant in its longitudinal direction, and the elongate shaped body has a cross-sectional shape which varies corresponding to the shape of the elongate composite member.
In order to manufacture an elongate composite member having a cross-sectional shape which varies in the longitudinal direction thereof, it has been customary to pre-form an elongate metal sheet into an elongate metal shaped-body and mold the resin part integrally with the shaped metal body by a so-called cast-injection molding process. Alternatively, the resin part which has been separately molded by an extrusion molding process is secured to the metal shaped body by an adhesive or the like. Such customary methods require large-sized press dies or injection mold. Accordingly, from a practical viewpoint, the integrally molded elongate composite member could not be made at once. The entire elongate composite member is thus divided into a plurality (typically, two or three) of pieces which are later joined with each other into a unitary body, with the result that the jointed lines are exposed to outside, thereby frequently degrading the appearance. Further, a manual work is indispensable in the case of fixing the resin part with an adhesive. In this instance, not only substantial man-hours are required, but also constant fixing can hardly be carried out, frequently causing the problem of degraded appearance. Accordingly, there has been a demand for an elongate composite member which is free from the above-mentioned problems.